Spell Ward
| rarity = Very Rare | type = Town Enchantment | casting_cost = | upkeep_cost = | research_cost = | effects = Protects a Town from Fantastic Units and overland spells of a single magical Realm. Up to 5 different Spell Wards may be cast simultaneously on the same Town, each protecting it from a different Realm. }} Spell Ward is a Very Rare Town Enchantment of the Realm. It may only be cast on a friendly Town on the overland map. For the base Casting Cost of , the spell prevents overland spells from one specific Realm from affecting the Town, and Fantastic Units of the same Realm from entering it. The latter effect applies to the caster's own Fantastic Creatures, as well as the enemy's. The effect requires an Upkeep Cost of per turn to maintain, although up to 5 Spell Wards may be cast on a single Town and affect it simultaneously - each protecting from a different magical Realm. According to its description, this spell was also supposed to prevent any combat spells from the chosen Realm from being cast during a siege of the Town. However, this protection is not actually implemented in the official game, although it is in the Unofficial Patch 1.50. Effects Spell Ward protects a Town, its tile, and its garrison, from most hostile effects caused by spells of a specific magical Realm. In addition, it will bar all Fantastic Units (whether friendly or otherwise) that belong to that Realm from entering the Town. Realm-Specific Protection Spell Ward grants an enchanted Town two levels of protection from overland spells. Firstly, it counters most spells from the Realm it is chosen to ward against, if they are targeted at the enchanted City, or its tile. This works against all Town Curses, and the majority of Instant Spells that need to be targeted at a City or an overland map tile. However, in the latter case, only the single tile that the Town is located on enjoys this protection. Spell Ward does not prevent any spells from being cast at other tiles in the City's catchment area. It also won't negate the effect of Town Curses already in place when the ward is set up. These will still remain operational until dispelled, even if new ones from their Realm may not be cast on the Town while the protection is active. In addition, in all current game versions, Nature Ward will fail to prevent the spells , , and from being cast at the City or the tile it is on. In contrast, Chaos Ward fizzles a cast at the Town's tile, even if it the cast is attempted by the Wizard that placed the ward and owns the City. As such, the only spell that Nature Ward actually works against is . Spell Ward can also locally negate the effect of most harmful global spells. In this case, the casting of the spell is not prevented. Instead, the Town and its garrison are simply exempt from its effect. This applies to both Instant Spells and Global Enchantments. For example, a Death Ward will make the units inside the City immune to , while a Sorcery Ward prevents them from being affected by . Similarly, will not destroy either Town Buildings, or Outposts protected by a Chaos Ward. There are some exceptions here too, however. Most notably, Spell Ward does not negate the extra Unrest generated by and . In the official version of the game, it also does not stop these spells from negating the pacifying effect of religious buildings in the Town. In addition, Spell Ward does not protect the Town from fallout caused by casting a spell while an opposing is in play. Realm-Specific Barrier When a Town is enchanted with a Spell Ward against one or more magical Realms, Fantastic Units that belong to those Realms may not enter the Town - whether peacefully (friendly units) or for combat (rival/neutral units). These units simply cannot move to the Town's tile. For the player, any attempt to do so results in a pop-up window informing them that the movement into the tile is illegal. Army stacks containing one or more of the barred creatures may not enter the Town either. They must be split up so that the units ordered to move do not include any of the affected Fantastic Units. However, this does not stop such units from being summoned into the City via magic spells. Neither Summoning Spells, nor or have any problems exerting their intended effect, should the Summoning Circle happen to be in a warded Town. At the same time, both Undead, and units are considered to be Fantastic Units, even in the official game, and will normally be stopped by their respective wards. Usage -selection menu comes up after Spell Ward has been targeted at a City. It only lists Spell Ward types that are not yet in effect on this specific Town.]] Spell Ward may only be cast on the overland map, for a basic Casting Cost of . It may be targeted at any friendly Town which does not already have all 5 different wards active. If Spell Animations are enabled, the game will automatically open a window showing the cityscape of the target Town upon successfully casting the spell. A few moments later, a crossed-out yellow circle with a background color matching that of the selected Realm will appear amongst the other Town Buildings, and will remain visible on the cityscape as long as the spell continues to exist. Spell Ward will also be displayed in the city enchantment window when opening the City Screen for the Town. Thereafter, at the start of each turn, the casting Wizard must pay an Upkeep Cost of to keep Spell Ward active. The game will deduct this automatically, but if it fails to do so (due to insufficient income and reserves), the spell will dissipate immediately. The caster may also decide to cancel the spell manually by left-clicking on its name on the City Screen. At casting time, the game pops up a menu allowing the player to select which specific type of Spell Ward they wish to cast on that Town. Each Spell Ward will defend against one magical Realm. It is possible to cast multiple Spell Wards on the same City, for a maximum of up to 5 different wards (there is no ward). However, it is not possible to cast the same type of Spell Ward on a City that already has it. In fact, the pop-up menu will not list any type of ward that is already affecting the Town. Acquisition As a Very Rare Spell of the Realm, Spell Ward may become available to any Wizard who acquires at least Spellbooks. With any less, the spell can not be learned during the campaign. This is the minimum requirement for it to be traded for, appear in Treasure, or be found in the spoils of victory when conquering the Fortress of a rival Wizard who already knows it. The base chance for Spell Ward to be researchable (at some point) in the campaign is roughly 10% (with books), which gradually increases with the amount of Spellbooks possessed or found during gameplay. With or more, the spell is certain to show up sooner or later, unless acquired from another source. It has a Research Cost of , although its research is quicker for Wizards possessing the Sage Master, and/or Sorcery Mastery Retorts; or a bookshelf containing or more. Spell Ward may not be acquired at the start of the game, regardless of the amount of books selected from the starting picks. It must always be either researched or found. However, a bug exists in the official game, that may occasionally allow Spell Ward to be researched with only books despite its Rarity. This can happen if, and only if, the second Spellbook comes from Treasure, as it then allows a random Very Rare Spell to be researched, which has a flat 10% chance of being this spell. This oversight is corrected in the Unofficial Patch 1.50. Strategy Considering its costs versus the actual effect, Spell Ward is often not worth casting and maintaining. This is likely the result of one of its described features being left out of the game entirely. Despite that however, Spell Ward can actually be very useful in certain situations, most notably against enemy Wizards that rely on an abundance of Fantastic Units. If they are the only units sent on sieges, or if the accompanying Normal Units can otherwise be handled by the defenders, then a Spell Ward can mean all the difference between keeping or losing a critical Town. Chaos-''' and '''Death Wards are more powerful than the others in general, as they also stop the enhanced Normal Units that these Realms create. That is, units mutated via or ; and the Undead. In addition, both of these Realm also have several City- and global spells that can be prevented by their respective wards. By comparison, Life Ward does next to nothing, especially when considering that Wizards typically rely on Normal Units rather than Fantastic ones, of which they only have at most 5 different types; one of which is unique, while another is not exactly a creature designed for battle. If acquired early in the game one way or another, Spell Ward may also be able to protect a City from Rampaging Monsters. However, obtained through normal Spell Research, these will likely not be a threat by the time that Spell Ward is learned. It also needs remembering that this spell prevents the player's own Fantastic Creatures from entering the Town too, if they belong to the warded Realm. As noted above, one may still move the Summoning Circle into the City, and summon the appropriate creatures into it. However, if such a creature then leaves the Town, it will not be able to re-enter while the Spell Ward is in effect. Known Bugs Spell Ward suffers from several bugs of varying magnitudes in the latest official version of the game, although some of these are fixed in the Unofficial Patch 1.50. First and foremost, either as the result of a development oversight, or a change in concept during the process, Spell Ward does not actually fulfill one of the effects described in the game's documentation and context-based help entries. That is, it does not prevent spells of the warded Realm from being cast in combat. While its other effects may still make it useful against some Realms, Life Ward, for example, is practically never worth casting in the absence of this particular effect. v1.50 rectifies this issue by implementing the missing effect. However, in no version does Spell Ward protect against some effects, that it reasonably should. The prime example of this is the spell, which is not countered by a Nature Ward, although according to the patch notes, in v1.50, the AI will actually avoid using it in this case. As noted above, terrain altering spells are not countered either, whereas ones are fizzled even when cast by the Town's owner. In addition, the local effects of and , which could easily be prevented, are also unaffected. Finally, another oversight causes Town Curses that are already in effect to neither be removed, nor suppressed by their respective Spell Wards. It is also possible to force the game into an infinite loop by ordering units that would be stopped by a Spell Ward to move to the Town from a distance. If they can't reach the City on the same turn that the move order was given in, then when they do reach it, the game pops up its usual error message about them not being able to enter the Town. However, in this case, the move order does not appear to be cancelled as it should be, and clicking away the error prompt results in the game attempting the move again, over and over, effectively locking it up. Category:Town Enchantments Category:Sorcery Category:Unit Movement